Walter de Gruyter Publishers 1749-1999 [antikvár]

Foreword A major company jubilee invites a look back to the past, and that of the publishers Walter de Gruyter is the occasion for a detailed and absorbing account of this institution's history, which has been characterised above all by frequent mergers between publishing houses. Not least of all, it recalls the significant contribution the company has made to the cultural and scholarly reputation of Berlin, its importance as a partner for Berlin University, for the Academy of Sciences, for academic institutions and ministries in Berlin; and, of course, for generations of outstanding scholars and leading personalities in contemporary history. Apart from its probably unique list of titles in print, the firm's special capital is a renown that has evolved over two centuries and an unmatched, broad-ranging profile in academic publishing, successfully adapted throughout its history to meet the needs of the times. The publishing house Walter de Gruyter assumed its present form after the First World War with the merger of five independent firms, G. J. Goschen'sche Verlagshandlung, Verlagsbuchhandlung I. Guttentag, and the publishers Georg Reimer, Karl I. Triibner and Veit & Comp. In the years that followed it expanded with the acquisition of further academic publishers. In 1971 a subsidiary was established in New York, and in 1977 and 1978 publishing companies in the Netherlands and the United States were acquired. The firm has thus become one of the most important European scholarly publishers in private hands. The spectrum ranges from the humanities and theology to linguistics, law, medicine and the natural sciences. Many famous titles have been associated with the name de Gruyter, including the Sammlung Goschen, Kürschner's German Literary Calendar and Scholars' Calendar; the Minerva Yearbook of the Learned World, Staudinger's Commentary on the Civil Code, Kluge's Etymological Dictionary of the German Language and, finally, the very widely used Clinical Dictionary, the Pschyrembel. They are all indispensable standard works in every academic library, essential for research.